JP 5453325 B discloses a transcranial magnetic stimulation system. The system includes a head support and coil positioning unit for holding a head of patient in a proper position relative to a coil for transcranial magnetic stimulation during the transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment. WO2008/001003 discloses a device which robotically determines and moves the position of the components or devices, and a therapeutic apparatus that includes such device. In this apparatus, all moving parts in the transcranial magnetic stimulation device is robotized, and once the device memorizes the stimulation point in the patient's head, the transcranial magnetic stimulation coil assembly can automatically move to a position corresponding to the stimulation point.
The head support and coil positioning unit of JP 5453325 B, as its name implies, is to hold the patient's head and is not to detect that the head is not in the suitable position or to inform the patient of the fact. Therefore, the treatment can be continued as the coil is not in a position optimum for treatment. In this instance, an expected treatment effect may not be obtained. The system according to WO2008/001003 identifies the patient's head position using an infrared stereo camera, and then the robotic device automatically moves the transcranial magnetic stimulation coil assembly to a specified position to match the camera image with the MRI image. Unfortunately both the infrared stereo camera and the robotic device are considerably expensive, so that it is not economical to use such system for the general purpose therapies.